The present invention relates to secondary recovery techniques used to increase production from oil and gas wells. It is well recognized by persons skilled in the art of oil recovery techniques that only a fraction of the amount of oil or petroleum originally present in a petroleum reservoir can be recovered by primary production, e.g., by allowing the oil to flow to the surface of the earth as a consequence of naturally occurring energy forces. When the naturally occurring energy forces are no longer sufficient, the industry often engages in so called “secondary recovery” techniques. Conventionally, these techniques often involve injecting water into a formation by one or more vertical injection wells to displace petroleum toward one or more spaced-apart vertical production wells, from which the petroleum is recovered to the surface. However, given the modern trend toward drilling fewer vertical wells and extending numerous lateral wells from the vertical wells that are drilled, the prior art vertical injection wells often perform poorly in re-pressurizing under-pressured hydrocarbon formations. New techniques for optimizing the formation pressure in lateral wellbores would be a significant improvement in the art due to the heterogeneous nature of most producing formations.